I bought a new Fit, and noticed that the tires have several colored paint spots on them, about the size of a quarter. Possibly used to mark something during manufacturing or transportation.

Any suggestions how to remove them? The dealer already washed the car and tire shined the tires, but they didn't come off.

 

I've used a dab of tar remover on a rag to remove those paint spots on new tires.

Yes, I know that stuff isn't good for the rubber, and I'm not suggesting you soak the tire in petroleum sovents, just a dab on a rag. I've never noticed any problems with this method, but then, I go through a set of tires every couple years-long before any sidewall checking appears.

Any other ideas?

 

it's just rubber, I'd say scrub away at it if it bothers you. Use sandpaper or other abrasive if you need.

If you use a solvent, I'd be careful, you may do more damage then good.

BTW, there is supposed to be colored spots on every name brand tire sold. This indicates balance point when the tire was made at the factory, and indicates where you are supposed to mount the stem to reduce the amount of wheel weights needed.

if there are multiple dots of different colors, these indicate different kinds of balance points.

info here:
http://www.bridgestonetrucktires.com..._i1/ra_doc.asp

 

Nail polish remover always takes paint off.. I think i just rubbed at mine until they came off.

 

Thanks for the replies. I wasn't finding any results when I was googling before for "paint on tires", but now that I searched for "tire dots" I'm finding relevant results. Looks like they're for mounting purposes.

I think each tire has 4 brightly colored dots, yellow, red, green. They've really gone overboard with these things.

 

I figure once the tires are mounted, the "balance dots" have served their purpose, so I remove them.

 

What if you have to take a tire off to replace the TPMS, or a valve stem, or fix a flat?

 

I thought of that as well, guess that's what the wheel weights are for. Seems like the dots get you close on the initial mounting. I'm wondering how many shops really get the dot thing and is it a standard?

 

Last time I had a set of tires installed, the dots were nowhere near the valve stems, but the wheels didn't have an excessive amount of weight.

One dot was about 30 degrees away from valve, other three slightly less.

 

Wow you guys are worried about colored dots on tires? haha

 

colored dots or skull caps on your mirrors what's the difference???

 

Usually there will only be 1 or 2 dots, depending on the tire manufacturer. No one's going to use all 4 dotting methods.


If you took a class on tire mounting, it you take off a tire, then you mark the old position with chalk or other marker. Remember, this is just a rough estimate, more for like a gas station garage or not a full tire shop where you don't have a full electronic spin balancer. It is the same technique like if you replace tie rods, mark and put the new ones to the old setting until you can get to a proper electronic 4wheel alignment

In practical terms, no one really mounts tires more than once anyway, unless there is a major repair like tire patching. This would affect the balance so you'd need a full rebalance anyway.

If its a new tire, if the spin balance indicates it would require excessive weight to balance, and you're a shop with a high standard, you might dismount and remount the tire 180 or 90degrees to to see if that would reduce the required weights.

Rule of thumb at most places would be if it's under 1oz, good enough, even if the dots aren't lined up perfectly.
Good tires, especially the more expensive tires with higher speed ratings are more or less round anyway, so there's not too much difference even if you mounted 180degrees of the balance dot.
If the customer buys cheap tires, they probably don't care too much to begin with.

 

Yes, of course, I was referring to the guy who said that once the tires were mounted the dots served no further purpose. I was explaining that there were circumstances under which they'd have to be remounted. The purpose of the dots is to install the tire in such a way as to minimize the total weight of the balancing weights.

 

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but this was the closest topic I could find to my question. I recently purchased a 2012 Fit Sport Nav and I'm getting the car squared away to my liking.

One of the things I pay attention to are initial assembly marks and notes. I pay attention to the colored dots on the tires and have always had my tires match mounted when I buy a new set. This gives me better results usually indicated by less weight added for balancing (in some cases zero) and best long term tire performance.

On the Dunlop website I found this note:

"HARMONIC MARKINGS
Red dots on Dunlop high performance tires for match mounting purposes. These dots mark the 'high spot' of the tire, which is then matched with the 'low spot' on the rim to cancel out harmonic vibration."

On my Fit there is a blue paint mark on each wheel that is lined up with the red dot on each tire (or visa versa). These blue wheel marks are not apparently related to the valve stems.

If this indicates "low" runout point on the wheel I will want to mark it permanently (probably with a punch) so I can match it in the future after the paint wears off. Does anybody know if this is the case for this blue mark?

Also, one lug nut on each wheel assembly is also marked. Does anybody know what that means?

 

placebo effect. if you haven't removed the markings yet, you could use a piece of fine sandpaper to sand the spot

 

Wesley's BleachWhite and a scrub brush. Or if you are really lazy, take it to a car wash, spary some BleachWhite on the tire and use the powerwash nozzle to remove the paint.

 

I hope those two replies weren't to my questions.